SUGGESTIONS AND GUESSES 121 



and Migration of North American Birds," is emphatic 

 that the transfer of American birds to Europe is 

 entirely due to the agency of winds carrying them 

 from their course (6). Mr A. L. Butler met with 

 snow - buntings in mid - Atlantic travelling east, 

 and Mr J. Trumbull supplies information about 

 many passerine birds especially snow - buntings 

 and wheatears seen in September and October 

 at various points between Canada and the British 

 coasts (53). Some joined ships but others made 

 no attempt to do so, even at 54 north 44 west. 



Unfortunately there is the negative evidence of 

 fraud, for when unscrupulous dealers found that 

 the public would give high prices for rare birds, 

 a trade in American skins began. It is not im- 

 possible that even Gatke was victimised. Error or 

 even accidental fraud may be taken into account. 

 Some years ago I heard that a hawk-owl had been 

 killed in Cheshire, at an inland port on the Ship 

 Canal ; I traced the bird, the American species, 

 but discovered that it had been captured on an 

 east-bound steamer in the Straits of Belle Isle, and 

 had only died or been killed when the vessel reached 

 the coaling station at Partington, where the taxi- 

 dermist who received it thought it had been taken. 

 A Cape pigeon, which I saw in the flesh, reported 

 as shot in Lancashire, I found had been brought 

 home in cold storage. 



